Carpe Diem

Recently in my AP Spanish class I read a sonnet that really made me reflect upon my life because of its meaning. The poem was called “Mientras por competir con tu cabello” by Luis de Góngora. In the sonnet the author points out the beauty of a woman and her characteristics. He explains that she should be grateful and value her beauty while she still has it. Luis de Góngora emphasized the theme of “Carpe Diem” which translates to “seize the day”. His message was about how we should enjoy the present moments in our lives instead of wasting time on worrying about the future. Now of course our future is important as well; but, the meaning of “Carpe Diem” isn't to completely forget about our future rather to take chances now than waiting until later

I say “carpe diem” because, to me, the essays convey the message that we are all going to die someday so we must make the most of the time we are allotted. The most evident symbols of this underlying theme are the dying moth in Woolf’s essay and E. B. White’s realization that time waits for no one in his. As grim as they may be, these two

In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.

always wins and people are old before they know it (Herrick 385). The meaning and theme of carpe diem is clearly described in the four stanzas of the poem.

Robert Frost and William Shakespeare have been celebrated by many people because of their ability to express themselves through the written word. Here we are years after their deaths analyzing these fascinating poems about life and death. It’s clear they had similar thoughts about this subject at the time of these writings, even though their characters could not have been more opposite. For both poets, life is too

Comparing Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress and Robert Herrick’s To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

In both poems there is a sense of urgency. Certainly, the theme of carpe diem is in Herrick's verse as he utilizes the sun and its measure of a day as a metaphor for the swift passage of time. Even though Herrick and Marvell take different approaches toward the sun as a timekeeper, both their poems stress the need to enjoy love while there is yet time.

Carpe diem is when the author makes the reader understand that they are trying to tell them to live to their fullest. In both “To His Coy Mistress” and “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” the author mentions how they should live like it’s their last day and to make the best out of it. Also beauty takes a big role in both poems and how one day it will fade, so for them to take advantage of it now before it fades.

The words carpe diem mean “seize the day” in Latin. It is a theme that has been used throughout the history of literature and has been a popular philosophy in teaching from the times of Socrates and Plato up to the modern English classroom. Carpe diem says to us that life isn’t something we have forever, and every passing moment is another opportunity to make the most out of the few precious years that we have left. In the poems “A Fine, a Private Place” by Diane Ackerman and “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, carpe diem is the underlying theme that ties them together, yet there are still a few key differences throughout each of these two poems that shows two very different perspectives on how one goes about seizing their day.

The poem progresses from mourning of the deceased to praising of his achievements and fate to die before his glory withered. Therefore, the tone shifts from somber and quiet to upbeat and positive. Such shift of tone is achieved by Housman’s use of sounds. In first two stanzas, Housman describes the funeral procession as he remembers the time when the young athlete was proudly brought home after he won a race. Then, he solaces the mourners by reminding them it is better that the athlete “slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay” (lines 9 and 10) because the laurel “withers quicker than the rose” (line 12). The soft “s” sound stands out especially in second and third stanza and it creates a sense of calm and quiet tone and evokes an image of townspeople mourning the death of their “hero”; Consonance of “s” sounds is present in words “shoulder, set, threshold, townsman, stiller, smart, slip, betimes, fields, does, stay, grows, withers, and rose.” In addition to consonance, soft sound alliteration in “road all runners” (line 5) helps to create a quiet tone. As the poem progresses into praising of the young athlete in stanzas four through seven, the consonance of hard “c”, “t”, and “f” sound become prominent. Readers can immediately detect

In the fourth stanza, Dickinson asks whether the lives of those who survive worth all the lives sacrificed in battle, similar to her message in the third stanza. Are our lives, “we that wait”, worthy of something so beautiful as someone’s life, the “Enormous Pearl” being destroyed in something so brutal as battle. The line “In Battle’s – horrid bowl” gives the image of a brutal and bloody turmoil that, like the curved edges of a bowl, is inescapable.

Herrick was born on August 1591. In his life spam he had seen the English Civil War. It was fought between the Royalists who supported Charles I and the Roundheads that supported the Parliament. Herrick was a Christian priest for the reason that he tells women to get married. “Then be not coy, but use your time And while ye may, go marry” (Herrick). Ketteler explains,“It’s no coincidence that Herrick served as a parish priest”(Ketteler 334). He tells young women to go marry which signifies that he was a priest. He wants women to get married at a young age because everyday that passes you are getting a day older so, marry while you are young before it's too late to get married. Perkins also says. “He urges them to marry before they lose their virginity” (Perkins 237). Herrick believes in not having sex until marriage which, signifies that he was religious. Herrick mentions “heaven” in the poem which proves that he was religious and beliefs in the after-life. Herrick become known for his poetry and his work was recognized by King Charles I. In His Poetry, he uses the theme of carpe diem which consists of the topics such as: life is short, youth is a short period of time, and beauty fades. Carpe diem is the concept of living life in the moment and to not think much of what is to come in the future. The message is to not waste your time thinking about what your going to do later on in your lifetime but to rather act upon your life in the present.

“Carpe Diem” a phrase that’s meaning has transformed many times throughout history. In modern times it translates to “seize the day”, but its literal Latin translation is “pluck the day when it is ripe”. In the 1989 Academy Award winning film, “Dead Poet’s Society”, written by Tom Schulman and directed by Peter Weir, Robin Williams who plays unorthodox English teacher, John Keating begins his time with the boys talking to his class about how easy it could be for them to be successful and achieve greatness by seizing the day. The theme of “Carpe Diem” is also shown in literary works such as Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.

Choices define who we are, good or bad they should be meaningful. Carpe diem is a method of thinking that represents seizing the day. How people seize the day can be very different. it can be having the courage to say something to a girl, standing up for a kid being bullied or following your dreams and participating in a play. Mr. Keating is as a very flamboyant English teacher at the Welton Academy. He is very enthusiastic about teaching English and very passionate about ensuring that his students understand the power of carpe diem; which is viewed as an almost taboo subject in the preppy boys school. Nevertheless he goes to great lengths to introduce the carpe diem lifestyle and mentality to his class.

Andrew Marvell's elaborate sixteenth century carpe diem poem, 'To His Coy Mistress', not only speaks to his coy mistress, but also to the reader. Marvell's suggests to his coy mistress that time is inevitably rapidly progressing and for this he wishes for her to reciprocate his desires and to initiate a sexual relationship. Marvell simultaneously suggests to the reader that he or she should act upon their desires as well, to hesitate no longer and seize the moment before time, and ultimately life, expires. Marvell makes use of allusion, metaphor, and grand imagery in order to convey a mood of majestic endurance and innovatively explicate the carpe diem motif.